“It looks as though Ming isn’t in the mood to receive visitors today,” I said.
“What do you suggest we do, Tibby?” One of my lieutenants asked.
“I think we need to knock a little harder. Toss in a few flash-bang grenades; see if that makes them more receptive.” Flash bang grenades in the Federation were more evolved than those of Earth in my day. In addition to a deafening and disorienting bang and a blinding flash of light, the Federation grenades also emitted a paralyzing nerve gas that caused anyone who breathed it in the first minute to lose all muscular control for several minutes. The gas was more effective than tear gas and disabled without causing physical distress. After one minute the gas broke down quickly, and anyone who inhaled it would not be affected. Those who did inhale it suffered its effects for about eight minutes, during which time they were fairly helpless. My men opened the door a little and two men quickly tossed the grenades inside. There were some muffled shouts just seconds before the grenades exploded; the force of the explosion caused the doors to the room to swing open for a second before they immediately swung shut again. In that brief second we were momentarily blinded by the flash though the condition only lasted a few seconds for us, as we only caught its reflection. During the minute we waited for the gas to dissipate, we could hear moaning inside the room.
I nodded, and motioned to my men; they quickly rushed into the room isolating and immobilizing all the guards nearest the door. The remainder found themselves staring at several guns aimed at them as their vision slowly returned.
“Guards... kill these intruders!” Ming mumbled as he sprawled helplessly on the floor as he saw us enter. But none of them made any attempt to follow his orders, as most had dropped their weapons when the grenade when off and they were still trying to get up off the floor with no muscle control. Ming was trying to crawl back into his chair as the effects of the gas began wearing off and he was struggling to get himself fully seated again but with little success.
“How dare you enter my throne room without invitation or order?” Ming said pathetically. I nearly laughed at his comical appearance as he tried to look commanding and dignified, but the effects of the gas still had him slumping and he could not get his head erect and it rolled about his shoulders like the head of a new born infant.
“Frankly, Ming, I could care less about an invitation. From what I have seen so far, this is not a kingdom-- it’s slavery, and you’re a despot, and I have no regard for either. Now if you will cut out the crap, I have an offer to make you.”
“Why should I deal with you, after you destroyed the Earth by pushing the asteroid into the it. I would have conquered all of it if you had not destroyed it!” Ming sneered.
“Wait... What do you mean if I had not pushed the asteroid into the Earth? You think WE did it?”
“Who else but you could have done so? We have seen your ships return here many times to observe the damage you have done, and we have watched you seeding the fire and smoke on Earth with something to reduce the toxic elements to make it habitable once more.”
“What? Someone has been coming here since the asteroid hit Earth, and they didn’t try to rescue you?”
“You don’t fool me,” Ming said. “Who else could it have been; do you really think we believe you are from the stars? We know you have a base on Mars and only want to enslave us to do your work. Ming is not as gullible as you think. I sent up our sole ship to meet with you, and you did something to it. Our men stopped communicating with us, and we watched as your large ship took our ship , leaving us stranded. Only now, when we are weak and starving do you return with claims of wanting to help.”
“I’m afraid you have it all wrong. We have come from the Galactic Federation, many light years away from here. There are over one million planets in the Federation, and we come to help, not to destroy or conquer.”
“That is why you come with weapons?” He sneered again.
“We came with weapons because you fired on us. We could destroy this entire moon if we wished with a single shot. Even now we have not killed any of you, and we only have come like this because of the pleas we have received from some of your people here on the Moon begging us for help.
Ming spat on the floor, “Bah! There are always dissidents protesting one thing or another, voicing their discontent. I am sure that among your own crew there are those not pleased with you as well.” I noted that while he was speaking, the thin pale woman whose image we had seen on the drone’s vid screen, managed to get up off the floor and shakily walk over to Ming and wiped Ming’s spittle from the floor with a cloth. “It is better to rid oneself of these malcontents than to allow spread their poison.” Ming finished.
“If there are malcontents on my ship and among my employees, I know nothing of them, but even if I did I would not have them killed or mistreated.”
“A sign of weakness-- in this life it is the strong who survive, they take what they want and destroy the weak that get in the way.” Ming said as he examined his fingernails.
“By your comment I then assume that you feel it is my obligation to kill you, since we clearly have conquered you and this base, and you obviously are weaker than we are.”
“Nonsense! You are not superior. We are equals,” Ming said rising from his throne-like chair, spreading his arm open wide and advancing toward me, albeit somewhat shakily. Immediately my troopers brought their weapons to the ready, all aimed at Ming. Ming paused and the smile on his face melted. “Perhaps it would be best if we were to talk like two civilized leaders. I’m sure we can establish a mutually agreeable arrangement, one that would benefit us both.” He said as a smile slowly crept back to his lips and he returned to his throne. All the effects of the gas now gone from him.
“There is no reason we cannot,” I answered. “We came here hoping to offer assistance and to rescue any Earthlings that survived the asteroid impact. We already have the Mars colony aboard my ship, and when we learned of your colony, we came to offer you the same opportunity as we did them.”
“I see,” Ming said as he stared at the armrest of his throne while tracing the gold enameled pattern with a longer-than average fingernail. “But why should we abandon our colony here? What is it that you specifically have to offer us that would make it worth our time to leave our beloved Moon?” Ming was clearly playing games now, as it was quite apparent that the lunar colony was on the decline, much like the Mars one was, and that it was only a matter of a few more years until it failed completely.
“I can offer you safe passage off this Moon and take you to any of millions of worlds better suited for life for one thing. Alternatively, I can take you back to the Federation, where you may choose to become a citizen if you wish and establish a business or take a job. I’m fully willing and able to finance all the refugees from both Moon and Mars, so you would not need to worry about how you would survive in the Federation should you choose to leave here.”
“How do I know this is not some sort of trick? Maybe you are from Mars yourself, and this ship of yours is a trick to wipe out and destroy us?”
“If it was our intention to destroy you we wouldn’t have bothered landing; we could have done it from orbit. Now I suggest you cease with these hostilities, or we will have no recourse other than to destroy you. We already have a number of your people who have come to us for sanctuary, and I fully intend to take all those that wish to escape whatever hell it is you are running here.” I could see Ming nervously considering the ramifications of what I was saying.”
“Very well then. I will require special accommodations with plenty of room and accommodations for my slav… uhh… servants who attend me. I also have numerous personal treasures I will need to take as well.”
“Adequate accommodations will be provided for all of your people, we have ample room. However, you will no longer have any slaves or personal servants unless they choose to be so. All of you will be coming onto my ship as equals with equally appointed accommodations. The ship’s
domestic staff will see to your needs aboard the ship, and they are to be treated with respect and courtesy; they are crew members, not servants or slaves. Is that understood?”
“But, but I am an Emperor, I am to be afforded proper respect!”
“As of today, Ming, you are a refugee, as are all those here. As such you share equal status with them all, or if you like I can simply leave you here; you and any others who do not wish to abide by the rules of my ship.” I could see Ming struggling with this last part, as the woman who had been beside him all this time approached him and whispered something to him. I could see him staring at me, as whatever she said sunk in to his mind. Slowly a feeble grin that gave me a chill crept across his face.
“Very well then, it would seem I have little choice but to accept your hospitality and that of your Federation. I do hope your food is better than the likes of what I have had to endure here the past few years.”
“I don’t think you will have any complaints about the food aboard my ship, Ming. Now if you can bring a halt to your guards’ resistance, we can begin making arrangements to transport you all to my ship.”
Ming barked a few commands to his guards, who all laid down the few weapons they still maintained, and then gave orders for one of them to notify the rest of the base that he had negotiated a safe passage for them to a better world. I had to laugh at this part, as he had not negotiated anything, but he was still trying to appear to be in control to the other Moon residents.
After my encounter with Ming, I felt it might not be in the best interest of everyone for all the Chinese to be located in one area of the ship, so I had Piesew arrange that the Chinese and Martian colonists and scientists be housed in the same part of the ship in alternating suites. I also had armed troopers stationed at all doors that led to engineering or command centers about the ship, and those were strictly off-limits to the refugees, unless they were escorted by a dually appointed staff member by me, the Commodore Stonbersa or Captain Kerabac. For the most part, this posed little problem as the portion of the ship they did have access to was quite large and there were plenty of distractions to occupy their attention. We decided to delay departure for several days, during which time some of the materials and research projects the Chinese were conducting were brought aboard. Surprisingly, there was not too much in the lines of research, as Ming had all the scientists working mostly on food production in their green houses. Ming, on the other hand, had a huge collection of art and other treasures; I could only assume that he had spent a lot of time and money having them transported to the Moon for a long period of time prior to his escaping there himself. He obviously had planned an escape to the Moon in the event of an emergency long before the appearance of the asteroid.
Ming fussed at first when I informed him that everyone would have to use the learning headbands to learn to speak the Federation language; he felt we all should speak Chinese as we had been doing since our arrival. However, after I informed him that the rest of the Federation was not about to learn Chinese just to speak to him, and that those on the ship would be speaking the Federation Language, he relented. Even so he held out until the very last, carefully observing all of his subjects to see how they were affected by the process. At the same time the learning bands were imparting language and knowledge to the refugees, they were being tested with the loyalty tests incorporated in the machine. The results of the tests were quite shocking. When the same test was given to the International Mars colony, only two individuals came up with questionable results, but with the Chinese the results were dramatically split. Those who were scientists and regular staff at the Moon base all passed the test, while 23 of those who had a military background and served Ming came up with questionable test results and possible threats to the Federation and my ship. I decided that these individuals would be closely watched. One condition I had emphasized to both the Chinese and the International refugees was that they had to surrender all arms and that they would not be allowed access to arms. Ming insisted that he needed armed guards for his protection, and it seemed he was more afraid of his fellow Chinese than he was the Mars colonists or my crew. Eventually, however, he relented when we showed him that his suite, once sealed from the inside, was safe from intruders. Of course this wasn’t entirely true as, A’Lappe seemed to have secret access to any compartment he wished on the ship, but I wasn’t going to mention that.
With all the new people aboard, I thought it might be a good idea to meet with them all at one time for a basic indoctrination to ship protocol and how I hoped things would work out. I scheduled a dinner for that evening and I thought it might be a pleasant to have it buffet style, which would provide a variety of foods for the colonists to choose from. I thought this might be best, as the foods would all be new to them, and it might take them a while to decide on foods they liked. I met with Piesew to arrange things for the dinner, only to discover there was no word in the Federation Language for a buffet. Once again, I had found something from my past that was unknown in the Federation; nevertheless I presented my idea to Piesew, and though he was a bit confused when I explained the concept of a buffet, he quickly warmed to the idea and actually seemed to be excited at the new prospect in food presentation. I knew that Piesew had several chefs on staff and that they were excellent at what they did, but I never had any idea what they would do if they had the opportunity to show off their skills in putting together an assortment of dishes for something like a buffet. That evening when we assembled in the largest dining room on the ship, a space that could easily have held a thousand people, the assortment of dishes and the aroma of various foods that welcomed us to the room were mouthwatering. As people entered the room, Piesew instructed all of them to take a walk past all the foods before lining up to get their meals. From where I was in the room I could observe the people as they walked by the food. It quickly became obvious that there was more food in the room than they had probably seen since the Earth had been destroyed by the asteroid years earlier. It was also clear that these people were starving, and the delay in serving was torture to them. While the Mars colonists showed lots of interest in the dishes and oohed and awed over them, many of the Chinese wept at the mere sight of the food. When Piesew saw that these people were actually starving, he quickly arranged everyone into lines and began serving food to them. As each person reached the end of the line, Piesew had staff members there to greet them and to take them to their seats. I had discussed earlier that I didn’t want the Chinese and the Martians to separate into groups; I wanted them to be mix seated. Piesew had set things up perfectly so that very few individuals sat next to someone they knew. In the end, however, I ended up being seated with the head people from each colony, which of course meant that Ming was at my table. I noted also that he had the woman with him that I had seen in his throne room. Ming seemed upset when I addressed her first and asked her name. Before she could answer, Ming spoke up, “She is my assistant, she sees to my needs and wishes. You will have little need to speak to her but if you must you may address her as Yǎnjìngshé.”
As he said this, my brain automatically translated her name into both English and Federation Languages, and I shuddered as I realized her name, translated into English meant cobra and in Federation it meant cunning serpent. There was something in her appearance that conveyed that aspect as well, as she had a cunning and aggressive look, that while beautiful, also appeared deadly.
Needless to say Ming was a pain in the ass as he believed that he should be the center of attention. It became necessary for me to remind him he was a refugee guest on my ship and not a person of special importance as far as I was concerned; this didn’t go well with him, but he did quiet down and ate his food sullenly. While we were dining some of my more talented crew members provided entertainment with appropriate dinner music being performed in the background, just loud enough so as not to interfere with conversation. For this occasion I had all my senior officers and crew members present at the dinner dressed in their formal
uniforms. Our guests were provided with formal dining attire suited for civilians, and once again I could see this was not to Ming’s liking either. He complained that his formal military outfit had vanished in the cleaning unit in his room. He was most irritated when I told him I had instructed my crew that all of formal military attire of the refugees was to be taken, as none of them had any rank or station now that they were aboard my ship. I didn’t want any of them appearing to have special privileges, unless they displayed a reason to have them.
Once everyone had finished the main course and people had gone back through the serving line for their desserts, I stood up and began to speak. “I wish to begin by welcoming all of you aboard the NEW ORLEANS. I trust all of you have found the accommodations to be acceptable.” These met with a round of applause from most of the people in the room, save for Ming, who sat looking solemn and irritated. I was sure that compared to what most of them had on the Moon or on Mars, that their accommodations on my ship were extremely spacious and luxurious.
“Our trip back to the Federation will take several weeks, but before we return I wish to make a survey of the Earth’s surface and see what remains. If possible, and if anything exists worth saving, I would like to recover some of Earth's art works and other memorabilia. I welcome any of you who wish to go along on these expeditions. My only regret is that other than for you here, and any life samples you brought with you to the Moon or Mars, there are no life forms to be saved. I dearly would have loved to take some horses back to the Federation with us. However, be that as it is, we will save what we can. Those of you with specialties in various fields of science, and I imagine those are most of you,” there were some chuckles at this remark, “may want to report to A’Lappe or Cantolla.” I indicated both seated at the table. They are the heads of my science team, and if any of you are looking for jobs or have projects ongoing that you wish to continue, they will be the ones to see. I am sure you will have a lot to learn as well as a lot to contribute, and I can afford to hire and pay you if you are interested. Once we return to Federation space you are welcome to stay in my employment or move on as you choose. If you do decide to take employment with me, it doesn’t mean you will necessarily be working on this ship. I have facilities back on Megelleon as well as other locations that you may work.
Solbidyum Wars Saga 4: Too Late for Earth Page 18
